515. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 20 April [1800]*
Falmouth. Sunday 20th April 18001
My dear Wynn
We arrived here safely, after sundry delays & accidents, on Friday night. the packet by which I wished to sail has been detained by the wind, which still continues adverse. I am now impatient to be gone – but it is not unlikely that we may have to wait the change of the moon before the wind will change.
Falmouth is a comfortless place. the weather that detains the packet is dirty, & delay here is like the day-after-day respite of a man who must be hung at last. – When you write give me the particulars of the shocking murder you mentioned2 – you said enough to excite curiosity.
I am eager to be at Lisbon & at work. Whether it be that my brain has been shaken into activity – or that it has grown rich by long lying fallow, or that a certain degree of agitation is favourable to mental exertion, I know not – but my head is full & overflowing.
God bless you – Robert Southey.